


day 23: when a joke becomes something else

by halfwheeze



Series: thirty ways to wreck a train [23]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Meet-Ugly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 04:37:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14180784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfwheeze/pseuds/halfwheeze
Summary: he's not really doing anything when a guy comes up to him, rushing a looking a little frazzled, but still smiling.“hey man, you’re tall. You mind doing me a favor real quick? It’d really unfuck a situation for me.”





	day 23: when a joke becomes something else

**Author's Note:**

> hi! this is day twenty-three of a 30-day series I'm trying out! I can't say that I'll be fantastic at it, but I'm gonna try!
> 
> day twenty-three is rescue! hope you enjoy!

It’s a calm night, tonight. Occasionally he has to bartend during the night to keep things relatively together in the bills department, but he’s doing good right now; he hasn’t missed a single payment in the past two months, which is enough to be proud of, in his case. When he moved out here from Illinois, he thought he had accounted for everything, but that wasn’t the case at all. He had accounted for everything but the inflation, the way the L.A. sucked the money out of his account and made it look like nothing. Now, he’s not bitter, because he loves L.A. and it’s his home now, but he knows he’s not doing as well as a him from five years ago thought he would be doing at this age. Well, a Shane from five years ago also didn’t know if he was going to make it this far at all, so he figures he’s doing okay. It’s not even six o’clock and he’s home for the night, so at least there’s that!

Except, he feels himself stirring. He wants to walk around Los Angeles like he used to Springfield, but he knows that it’s more dangerous here, knows that he could get hurt, knows that things aren’t the same. Even so far from home, still he has wanderlust, awful and roiling in his gut, telling him to get out, telling him that if he stays home worse things will happen than if he leaves. He’s up and grabbing his keys before he can tell himself to stop, jacket and shoes still on his body from coming home from work, and he’s out the door before logic can tell him no. The door is locked behind him and he heads down stairs, out of the building and into the sunlight, still high in the sky in the middle of spring. He walks and feels the air across his skin, and he feels a little less like there’s none in this city at all. He feels, he thinks, like he’s a little more at home. 

He’s wandering for a while, mindless, not really thinking about much of anything because nothing seems real right now, when a guy approaches him. The first thing that Shane notices is that he’s  _ short _ , like  _ short _ , but built like a brick shithouse, and second is that he’s really nice looking. Like. Really nice looking. The guy immediately starts talking, animated and smiling up at Shane, a tad awkward in his stance. 

“Hey man, you’re tall. You mind doing me a favor real quick? It’d really unfuck a situation for me,” the guy says, cocking his head to gesture in a direction vaguely behind him. Despite the fact that Shane knows he should trust him, he, of course, does, because he has a problem with hot guys and going stupid. Shane nods and follows after him, just walking down the road a bit and following until the guy stops, and takes his hand. Okay. Definitely not what Shane was expecting, but certainly something. The guy at least takes a moment after taking his hand, looking up at Shane in the close distance now. 

“Okay, so this guy has my jacket, which, at this point, I would have just left if it didn’t have my keys in the pocket. He’s been saying he’ll give it back for my number, and I don’t know what to do, because he wants to call me immediately, to make sure, so I told him I have a boyfriend waiting for me outside. So he said to bring the boyfriend in and he’d give the jacket to my boyfriend. Problem is: I don’t have a boyfriend. I’m asking you to stand in for like two and a half seconds, I know this is really weird, I’m so sorry. But, like, please? I’m Ryan, by the way. Ryan Bergara,” Ryan introduces himself, and Shane really can’t decide what the weirdest part of this is. There’s the fact that a guy this hot doesn’t have a boyfriend, the fact that a guy this hot thought Shane could pass as his boyfriend, and also the fact that some stranger was running a horrifying romcom bad ending scene on a guy this hot. 

“I’m Shane Madej. Alright, I’m game. Let’s do this,” Shane says, shrugging one shoulder and gesturing for Ryan to lead the way. Ryan seems shocked he agreed at all, which is, again, surprising for a guy this hot; Ryan then shrugs and seems to accept the situation. They go inside the bar, which is awfully crowded, but Ryan seems confident in leading him back to a corner. The creep holding Ryan’s jacket, by the looks of it, is blonde, smirking a way that comes off as smarmy, and accompanied by a dark haired guy that seems to just be encouraging this embarrassing debacle. It’s a little gross. 

“Alright, Zack. This is my boyfriend, Shane. Can I have my jacket back?” Ryan asks, sighing in a way that comes off pretty petulant. The smarmy guy who’s name is apparently Zack smiles a little wider. 

_ “That’s _ your boyfriend? How about you prove it? Let’s see a kiss, huh?” Zack prompts, looking toward his friend for encouragement, and the dark haired guy delivers, nodding and grinning as well. Ryan seems to freeze up a little, but looks at Shane as if to ask if this is okay; Shane shrugs again. It’s not like he’s completely unwilling to kiss a hot guy, after all. He leans down and kisses Ryan, soft and slow, so that he can get used to it before Shane has both hands on his face, moving into his space. Ryan doesn’t seem to mind in the slightest, taking him in closer until they’re backed against one of the wooden pillars that seem entirely decorative, Shane crowding him against it. There’s maybe a minute, maybe two, where they’re just kissing in a bar, and Shane doesn’t know this guy, but he thinks he might want to, based on how he kisses alone. Ryan Bergara kisses like he’s running out of air and Shane is the only source of oxygen, like he needs it. That is, until he pulls away. 

“Wanna go on a date with me, maybe?” Ryan says, quiet, and Shane chuckles, moving his hands to cup Ryan’s jaw move effectively. 

“Yeah, sure,” Shane replies. 

“Oh my god, I can’t believe you fuckin’ pulled like that,” Zack says in the background, and Shane turns, eyes narrowed. Ryan hurries to explain. 

“Okay, so Zack isn’t actually a creep and please listen to this whole story before running out because I really do wanna go on a date with you and I wanna take you to dinner and hold your hand and shit but this is gonna sound really bad. So, Zack is here with his boyfriend - the other guy, Justin - and so he thinks I’m sad for being alone, and so he bet that I couldn’t pull given a ridiculous situation, so he gave me what I told you, and I thought it was all going to be in good fun, but you’re so much better than I thought this was going to be, and I promise I’ll make it up to you if you just stay and have drinks with us for a while,” Ryan rambles, holding onto both of Shane’s hands desperately throughout the whole thing. A list of emotions goes through his head before Shane decides on smiling, shrugging once more. 

“Yeah, okay, I’m game. If, of course, you pay for my drinks,” Shane replies, and Ryan looks in awe of him, and nods. He seems to realise that he’s holding Shane’s hands all at once and tries to pull away, but Shane only lets him take one, sliding into the booth across from Zack and Justin and pulling Ryan along with him. 

“Hi guys.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Leave me a prompt @halfwheeze on tumblr, and I'll get to it when I can!


End file.
